The inescapable political dimensions of missionary enterprises were never more obvious than during the turbulent period from 1870 to 1918. As world powers expanded and often collided in all too concrete political, economic, and military terms, leaders of Britain's major missionary societies had to deal with the closure of a once-open evangelical frontier. In Good Citizens James Greenlee and Charles Johnson draw on a wide range of archival materials to chart the complex, shifting, and often contradictory reactions of leading missionary organizations to the changing imperial realities around the globe.

The authors examine the interaction of missionary organizations with local political powers and with their home government, arguing that in trying to decide which course of action to pursue, missionaries became knowledgeable students of imperial politics and the shifting state of international affairs. They show that leadership of British missionary societies was split between those who wanted to be treated without favouritism by the British government and those who had more aggressive expectations. In doing so they explore the pressures that contributed to the formation of imperial policy and perspective during a significant period of the evolution of the British empire.

"it is refreshing to read a work well grounded in primary sources ... concerned with analysing historical patterns rather than indicting historical actors." Ruth Compton Brouwer, Department of History, King's College, University of Western Ontario.

James G. Greenlee is professor of history, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University of Newfoundland.